Rockstar Video games appears to be enjoying cat-and-mouse with some Grand Theft Auto Online gamers who’re utilizing newly added instruments to recreate the assassination of Charlie Kirk within the extraordinarily common on-line open-world crime simulator.
In September of final 12 months, right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk was shot in the neck and killed throughout a public look at a university in Utah. Within the weeks that adopted, many individuals, including Jimmy Kimmel, discovered themselves in bother for commenting or joking about it. Some even lost their jobs. Then, in December, proper earlier than the brand new 12 months, Rockstar added a mission creator to GTA On-line, letting gamers make their very own solo missions. And it didn’t take long for some creators to start recreating Kirk’s killing in GTA Online, resulting in an ongoing scenario the place it appears Rockstar is attempting (and failing) to cease these assassination-themed missions from spreading.
Rockstar Video games has added the time period “Charlie Kirk” to the profanity filter in GTA On-line after somebody created this mission: pic.twitter.com/oEubYl6TG6
— GTA 6 Data (@GTASixInfo) January 12, 2026
On January 12, the Twitter account GTA 6Info posted a clip of what seems to be a user-created GTA On-line mission referred to as “We Are Charlie Kirk” that options the participant being tasked with killing a person standing outdoors behind varied props in a location that appears like a university campus. As soon as the person is killed, the mission is accomplished. GTA 6Info additionally claimed within the tweet that due to this mission, Rockstar Video games has now added “Charlie Kirk” to GTA On-line’s profanity filter. The tweet went viral, but it surely’s unclear if Rockstar did, in truth, add Kirk’s title to any such filter and if that individual mission is the explanation.
Kotaku has contacted Rockstar Video games for extra info.
Nonetheless, whereas Kotaku can’t verify the particular declare in that tweet, it could confirm that if you happen to attempt to seek for “Charlie Kirk” on the official customized jobs web site for GTA On-line, you’ll be greeted with an error no matter which platform you choose. This additionally occurs if you happen to attempt to seek for a slur or different vulgar time period blocked by Rockstar. You may nonetheless seek for Charlie or Kirk separately, and doing so will reveal that beforehand shared Kirk-themed maps, just like the one from that viral video, appear to have been faraway from GTA Online someday between December 10, when the mission creator software was added to the sport, and at this time. Gamers seem like utilizing “Charlie Pink” or mashing his first and final names collectively to try to get round what seem like Rockstar’s try to make it a lot more durable to seek out and share these missions.
The query now could be whether or not Rockstar Video games will proceed to play cat-and-mouse with creators attempting to construct and share recreations of Kirk’s homicide. And in that case, for a way lengthy will this development proceed within the live-service recreation? If I do know the web, Rockstar has a tough job forward of it, particularly as rumors of a banned subject unfold on-line and entice extra creators to attempt their luck at getting round any attainable filters. We saw something like this happen in NBA 2K26 last year, with gamers utilizing the in-game creator instruments to create bloody characters referencing the killing.
